Thursday, May 22, 2008

As you long time viewers know, I'm a huge Seinfeld fan, and being a chef, one of my favorite episodes is The Soup Nazi. Today's video recipe features Newman's personal favorite, jambalaya. While true jambalaya is really more of a thicker rice stew, than a soup, it's one of those dishes that more stock can be added to easily make it into a soup recipe (and feed more people, of course). I'm not sure where the myth arose that Creole and Cajun food was complicated to make. Much like French, Chinese, and Italian cuisine, the best, and most popular dishes are actually the easiest to make.

This recipe is a perfect example. There's really not much chopping, there's only a couple steps, and it's a very easy recipe to alter and adjust to your tastes. This is a perfect dinner party dish, since once it's simmering, you can enjoy the party, and not have to fuss around in the kitchen.

Speaking of dinner parties, one interesting tidbit regarding jambalaya you can fascinate your guests with has to do with the name. No one really knows the true origins of the term "jambalaya," which means I always repeat the most entertaining version.

This is from the Dictionary of American Food and Drink:Late one evening a traveling gentleman stopped by a New Orleans inn which had little food remaining from the evening meal. The traveler instructed the cook, "Jean, balayez!" or "Jean, sweep something together!" in the local dialect. The guest pronounced the resulting hodge-podge dish as "Jean balayez."

Hey Chef. Thank you for a very enjoyable web site. I've always heard that "creole" was the more sophisticated cuisine, leaning toward French, while "cajun" was the more rustic. Kind of country mouse vs. city mouse. But I think they are used interchangeably now. Nice touch w/ the brown rice, too.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Cajun is derived from Acadian, those who descended from early French Canadian settlers, who were banished from Nova Scotia in early 1700's and settled in Southern Louisiana. Creole comes from the French and Spanish settlers together.

I was so excited to see you posted a classic New Orleans dish! A hint on the ingredients, if you don't feel like chopping veggies, get the Creole Seasoning Mix in the "cold foods" section of your grocery store. I know they sell it here (New Orleans) but I would hope they'd sell it everywhere. It's basically chopped onions, bell pepper, celery all combined into one handly container. It's a must-have in my fridge and it stays fresh for a good while. Also, invest in some Tony Chachere's if you can. A great spice mix for any dish. If shrimp aren't in season, chicken is great in Jambalaya as well. Overall, I find Jambalaya to be even better the next day.

Come visit us in New Orleans! It's festival season and the smell of crawfish boils, fried seafood, and even Jambalaya (although it's getting a little hot outside for that) are lingering around every corner!

Wait a second. You're showing people how to make Jambalaya and you've never even been to New Orleans??? tsk tsk tsk.

This really is a great time to visit. Neighborhood festivals pop up every weekend. They are free, full of great music, and restaurants set up booths and serve delicious food (not free of course). It's a great time to sample cuisine from all of your favorite restaurants. Granted, it's getting hot and muggy, but a tasty sno-ball will cool you off.

I love the dish and Cajun food. My wife and I are heading to New Orleans in mid July. We are going there for the food. Not to sure what restaurants we're going to yet but, it should be a tasty holiday!

Well. Cooked it for my wife. Everything went great until I added the shrimp before checking if the rice was really 5 minutes out. I cooked the brown rice to the package directions of about 50 minutes. At 45 it looked as if it was going to be done in 5 so in went the shrimp.

After a good 5 I checked the rice and it was not even close to being done. The flavor was great but not the rice. I added more liquid and gave it another 10 minute. Still rice was hard. Not sure what went wrong here. I guess i'll try it again and use a bit more liquid and give it a bit longer to cook. Any thoughts?

If she decides to stay with you, and you get to try again... Check the rice after 45-50 minutes and if it's getting dry add more stock, no problem adjusting that.

The flame may have been higher, or the lid not tight and some evaporated away. Next time add liquid and keep cooking-don't worry about over cooking the shrimp! Hard rice is worse that over cooked shrimp. Also - to play it really safe, you can even wait until the rice is perfect and then add the shrimp as it only takes a couple minutes and the rice will not over cook that much.

Nice video! I've lived in Houston the majority of my life, so Cajun and Creole foods are in my blood, along with the TexMex, barbecue, chili, steak, Southern fare, etc. :P

I'd say there's a bit more of a difference between Cajun and Creole. Cajun is pretty simple, heavy on rice, beans, seafood. Cajuns are closer to the Texas/Louisiana border in the west. Creole was mostly developed around New Orleans, and it's kind of a mixture (as the name "creole" implies) of several different cuisines, as NO was always an important port city. So, the food is generally a good deal fancier. Lots of people get the two confused, and generalize one or the other to encompass all - but, really, they are different! Sometimes similar, but there are distinctions.

Cool recipe. I just found your blog while looking around for other shrimp recipes. I just recently posted a recipe for Caramel and Ginger Shrimp that I adapted from “The Spended Table” cookbook and posted it on my blog @ http://cookingquest.wordpress.com if you would like to come take a look. I love feedback and other cook's opinions for sure.

Hi, native New Orleanian here. Just wanted to let everyone know that Cajuns are indeed the folks exiled from France & Canada, they brought their French influenced cuisine with them. The creole influence is the heat & spice brought with the slaves from the West Indies & the Spanish. 1 other tid bit is that we call the 3 main ingredients that start almost all food here (onions, celery, bell pepper)the holy trinity! The dish looks good, but please no tails on the shrimp & way more rice!

wow, this looks so good; can i substitute a scallop, or clam or some sort of fish for the shrimp since I'm deathly allergic to shrimp? If so, what would be my best bet for the closest taste/texture/etc?

I know this is pretty old post, but the basic difference between creole and cajun is creole is everything made with tomatoes.. cajun usually no tomatoes... I'm cajun and I never seen anything cooked with tomatoes.. And dark roux.... MMMMMmmmmm... I love me some fricassee, cher!!!!!!!

My boyfriend had a craving for jambalaya and I had an inkling you'd have a recipe. The flavor of this dish is, impossibly, even better the next day! It also had the perfect amount of veggie-to-other-stuff ratio and not too much heat. The only downside is the brown rice, which is just too chewy for my tastes. Luckily, Whole Foods lets you bag a ridiculously small portion - $1.27 worth. I think I'll just pour the stew over some steamed white rice next time. Oh, and my boyfriend thought you were Alton Brown - no really!

You asked in your video the difference between Cajun and Creole. Cajun is derived Acadian, French people who lived in Acadia. Acadia was what is now three Canadian Provinces : New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. In in 1755, the British Troops, after defeating the Frenchs, deported a big part of the French population to Louisiana. I am not sure about Creole but my Haitian friends do refer to their cooking as Creole. I guess you can find more in History books. There is a very popular Cajun signer in Louisiana called Zachary Richard (http://www.zacharyrichard.com/).Hope this brings some light.

I was thrilled to find your video online so I could see exactly what to do to make this marvelous dish. (I think I was a little heavy handed on the cayenne pepper, but still relish).Thanks again for being my teacher.

Just made this and it is wonderful! Better than the Jambalaya I had on a visit to N.O.. I used home grown tomatoes, green bellpepper, and bay leaf! Used half of a vidalia onion for the onion..had no green ones. I put in chorizo leftover from yesterday in place of the shrimp. Used a regular smoked sausage..the chorizo gave the spice. Just scrumptious!! Thank you Chef John!!!

First let me say that I've made a lot of your recipes and I've loved them all. I made this last night - scaled it up to 6 servings - but didn't change anything besides omitting the green pepper.

It was good but it tasted like the cumin overpowered the dish. The adjusted recipe called for 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin. Should I have not added so much? Or could I have done something technically wrong like not letting it saute in the butter long enough?

You didn't do anything wrong, but maybe you just don't like that much cumin. Taste is subjective, so all spices. salt, etc. need to be added "to taste" Add some taste, and add more if you want. This goes for ALL my recipes, and all recipes in general.

Hi Chef!I've made this dish now several times for my boyfriend, parents and friends and everyone absolutely loves it (especially me!) I usually cook and eat a lot of Italian foods so this was a nice change. It's delicious and I could seriously eat this every week. Thank you for all your great recipes, you're a genius. And you're helping amateur home cooks like myself learn a lot and try new things. YUM! Thank you!

Hi Chef,My name is Megan. I am 24 years old and I am from Boston. I must express my feelings. I recently discovered foodwishes.com and have become OBSESSED. I visit your site on a daily basis. Today, I was thinking of maybe trying to cook something with duck fat, so I went on youtube and entered my search. I saw a potato with duck fat recipe video so I clicked on it. When I heard your voice, I melted. I was so happy it was one of your recipes!! Had I known you had a duck fat recipe, I would have gone straight to your site. Silly me!! Cooking is truly a passion of mine and I want to get better and better. Your videos guide and direct me. AND, you cut out all the "in between" boring parts of the video. You keep it clear, concise, and best of all- FUNNY!! You are so funny I laugh over here in my little cubicle. And then my colleagues ask me what I am laughing about and then I brag about you. What really made me realize how much I loved foodwishes.com was when I got a little tipsy last Saturday and I started bragging about you LOL!! Chef John, I decided to leave a post on this recipe in particular because this is the first one I made and I will always have a soft spot for it. It's funny, I dated a dude for 2 weeks and cooked him dinner and ran into this website. Even though he is a bonehead now, I am glad I met him and cooked dinner for him because it brought me to you!! With the cold winter approaching, I am going to conquer your soup section. You are such an inspiration! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Chef John, Still waiting for the rice to cook, and I put a bit too much cayenne but I'm down for spicy. But the saucy part is smelling and tasting delicious! Thank you for such an excellent recipe! My boyfriend and I are huge fans. You're charming and make us excited to cook up your plans. We already made the irish shepard's pie which was SO amazing. We were wondering if you had any recommendations of restaurants in the sf bay area? We live in Oakland but like going to Sf often. Let me know if you get a chance!-Ajuni

Cajuns aren't Creole, and a Creole isn't a Cajun. Creoles as an ethnic group are harder to define than Cajuns. "Creole" can mean anything from individuals born in New Orleans with French and Spanish ancestry to those who descended from African/Caribbean/French/Spanish heritage.

Creoles in New Orleans have played an important part in the culture of the city. Creoles, like Cajuns, have contributed so much to New Orleans art, music and social life; without them, New Orleans wouldn't be the unique city it is today